Using Adobe After Effects, this month’s video tutorial cleverly captures the kinetic creativity of digital motion graphics. 1. Firstly, we are going to create a shutter blade. Start by opening up a new composition (1280px x 720px @ 29.97fps).
2. Create a new black solid base (2000px x 2000px).
3. Apply ‘Tint’ effect on the ‘Map Black To’ option.
4. Use the pen tool and draw a fin-like shape (upside-down).
5. Proceed to apply ‘Emboss’ (refer to image for settings), ‘Bevel Alpha’ (refer to image for settings), and ‘Add Grain’. With this, we have created a single shutter blade. Grain’. With this, we have created a single shutter blade.
6. Next, we are going to move the anchor point to the corner point on the right.
7. Pull the ruler tool out (Ctrl+r) and drag a crosshair right to the middle of your composition. Position the tip of the blade at the centre of the crosshair.
8. This will be your first blade. Duplicate this layer (place it beneath the first shutter blade layer) and rotate it to 43°- 49° degrees.
9. To create an 8-blade aperture, each duplicate should be rotated with its tip placed at the center.
10. The last blade will be placed on top of the lot, and every blade’s rotation and position will be tweaked further to ensure they are distributed evenly.
11. Now that we’ve got the blades set up, drag the anchor point and rotation. If done correctly, we will be able to see a nice aperture formation – an octagon.
12. Undo the previous step so that we can return to the position where the aperture closes fully. Select all of the blade layers, press ‘A’ and ‘Shift+r’ to bring up the anchor point and rotation properties at the same time. Keyframe the anchor point and rotation from this point.
13. Drag a few frames (5 frames) backwards and change the anchor point and rotation till you see an octagonal aperture.
14. Repeat the previous step with a few more frames and change the anchor point and rotation until every blade is out of the composition.
15. We have completed half of the animation now. Copy all those keyframes and paste them behind. Leave a gap of 5 to 6 frames. Reverse the newly copied keyframes. Right-click on any selected keyframe and hit ‘Keyframe Assistant’ > ‘Time-Reverse Keyframe’.
16. We should have a shutter animation by now. Smoothen its motion by ‘easing’ it and the auto-bezier keyframe (Ctrl+Click) can be used for the middle keyframe.
17. To make this video look complete, a footage will be added underneath the shutter blades to simulate a camera taking a picture.
Relaxation exercise, Young woman doing relaxation exercises : 20764579 © Siberia 123RF.com 18. Do some ‘Time Remapping’ to freeze the footage right when the shutter is about to close. Click on the footage layer, right-click and enable ‘Time Remapping’. Hit the stopwatch once you reached the desired keyframe. Skip to the next frame (Ctrl+ →) and hit the stopwatch again. Drag the second keyframe beyond the end of the composition.
19. Add in a fast blur effect and keyframe the blurriness property of the footage to create a ‘focus-searching’ animation.
20. Create another solid red base (or tint it red) and mask its shape out so that it resembles an AF point of a camera. Change to ‘Add Blend’ mode. Keyframe the scale property and scale down the box slightly, just when the footage becomes sharp. Finally, keyframe the opacity so that it flickers before the shot is taken.
And there you have it… you have just created a cool shutter blade animation! Bear in mind that the overall color of the footage can be tweaked to bring out its vibrancy!